Govt disallows cricket tour to Pakistan

Onkar Singh in New Delhi

The Union government on Tuesday night decided not to allow the Indian cricket team to tour Pakistan next month.

The decision was taken after a meeting attended by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani and External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh.

The Indian cricket team was expected to take part in the four nation Asian Test Championship, in which Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka would be taking part.

Sometime back the president of the Board for Control of Cricket in India, A C Muthiah, had called on the Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs, Uma Bharti, and requested her to allow the Indian cricket team to tour Pakistan.

"We are hopeful that the government would clear the team. Since the Asian Test Championship is a multi-cornered contest we see no difficulty in getting the government's clearance," Muthiah had told rediff.com after his forty-five minute meeting with Bharti.

Muthiah had a reason to be optimistic as Prime Minister Vajpayee had accepted Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's invitation to visit Pakistan to continue the process of dialogue started during the Agra summit.

But the sudden spurt in terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir in the last few weeks seems to have forced the government to take a hard decision.

When reached on phone Home Minister Advani refused to say anything on the decision taken by the government.

BCCI president AC Muthiah said he would give his reaction only on Wednesday.